Funding secured for key junction improvements in Warwickshire

Warwickshire County Council has secured £7.6 million of Government funding for crucial junction improvements.

The local authority has successfully bid for £3.3 million from the Regional Growth Fund and £3.3 million from the Department for Transport’s pinch point programme money to improve M40 junction 12 at Gaydon.

In addition, the authority has secured £1 million of pinch point funding for the Europa Way roundabout near Leamington to improve traffic flows.

Cllr Peter Butlin, Warwickshire County Council’s portfolio holder for transport and planning, said: “As part of our Going for Growth agenda it is vital that we invest in our road network and keep traffic moving at busy times. The improvements to these important strategic routes are much needed and will have a great benefit to the local economy by making journey times quicker and giving people access to jobs.

“Junctions 12 and 14 are two of Warwickshire’s busiest routes and this multi-million pound investment will relieve the congestion caused by huge volumes of traffic. We made a good case to the Government for these two schemes and engineers have designed junction improvements which will make these traffic hot spots significantly safer for motorists.

“These schemes will alleviate the traffic congestion at these bottlenecks caused by vehicles queuing on the hard shoulder during peak times.”

Queues of up to 2km can form on the M40 at junction 12 while queuing at Junction 14 sometimes extends back to junction 15 – this creates a risk of high speed collisions due to the mix of stationary and fast moving traffic close together.

Construction work is due to commence at junction 12 in summer 2014 and is scheduled to last a year. The scheme includes lengthening the slip road, adding a dual carriageway section on the B4451 and B4100 and a number of signalised junctions.

A total of £1m funding towards a total £1.5m cost of the A452 Europa Way roundabout improvements has also been approved. Construction is due to commence during the summer and will take approximately six months.